Seeing is Believing. How Renderings Can Change the Way You Experience Design

Posted by Bridget McMullin on June 19, 2018

Anyone who has watched a few minutes of HGTV or DIY Network programming is familiar with designers using computer-generated visuals for their clients (and their viewers) to “ooh and ahh” over!

At MDG, we’ve been using renderings to help clients visualize their spaces for about four years now. In that time, we’ve learned to hone our technique keeping the costs down on a tool that can rapidly get expensive.

TV makes it look easy. Click here, then here and, “Eureka!” a beautifully rendered image appears. What they don’t show is the 20-plus man hours that went into creating the room’s digital environments.

From the painstaking selection of furnishings representing your style to the building of the room details, trim, lighting and more; each rendering becomes a unique image for the client’s job.

This project was a perfect example of the differences a digital rendering can make to the design process.

The original space was dated and needed some designer’s love, but our renderings helped the client understand the proposed changes to the space in a way that simple drawings could not.

Recoloring of the existing stone and new trim details complemented the updated decorating plan, elevating the room and advancing the design into the new century.

Once the base image is built for the client it is easier and much less expensive to make changes as the design moves forward. A client can see a different fabric, a different wallcovering, or as in the images below, a new kitchen hood, and it is as easy as building the elements of just that one section of the image.

On occasion, we have clients that have a hard time moving forward because they just can’t visualize how everything will look as a whole.

In the case of this project in Medford, New Jersey, the husband was having a difficult time understanding the combination of finishes in the new space. Each element we presented to him before the renderings was denied. But these same finishes, when shown in renderings, were rapidly approved.

It’s hard to get clients to jump out of their comfort zone. Even though most people are super excited when starting a project, fear and unease about trying something different tend to sneak in during the process, usually dampening the creativity of the designer.

Our client was provided with different options for the hood design in their new kitchen.

That is why the computer-generated images help clients who have trouble envisioning spaces see the whole picture. Renderings contextualize the space in ways that technical floor plans and elevations simply cannot match.